Beginning in 1977, Carter appeared as a series regular in "On Our Own" (CBS), "Out of the Blue" (ABC), "Filthy Rich" (CBS) and "Different Strokes" (NBC), finally achieving her greatest success on the CBS comedy hit, "Designing Women", bringing her dusky, tongue-in-cheek drawl, glaring eyes and mature charm to the role of Julia Sugarbaker, the most sensible and vocally liberal of that show's four decorator divas. Carter met her current husband Hal Holbrook while starring opposite him in the CBS movie "The Killing of Randy Webster" (1981), and he had a recurring role on "Designing Women" as her romantic interest. They also co-starred in "A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle" (NBC, 1994). In addition to her many musical theater credits, Carter has excelled as a cabaret performer, playing NYC's Cafe Carlyle every year but one since 1989 and singing at the White House in November of 1993, the tape of that performance airing on PBS as "Cabaret" (1994). Carter's early ambition to sing opera came to naught, but she sort of realized her dream of being an opera singer by taking over the part of the great diva Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's "Master Class" (1997), the only spring she missed her engagement at the Carlyle.